Pool covers are presently available and are known to cover a swimming pool, as for reasons of safety and/or the unwanted entry into the pool of debris or the like; and, even to prevent heat loss. Typically, in this regard, a series of tie down assemblies, i.e. tensioning arrangements or fasteners, extending from the pool cover to an anchor embedded in the pool deck are employed to secure the cover to the surrounding deck surface. Each assembly may include a strap or web secured to the cover and engaging one end of a tension spring, where the opposite end of the latter is affixed to the aforesaid anchor.
Various tie down assemblies have been disclosed in the prior art. However such tie down assemblies generally require, at the very least, a three foot concrete deck surrounding the pool to effectively anchor the tensioning arrangements to the deck. Normally, in prior art arrangements, the cover extends twelve inches over the concrete deck, and strap extending from the cover extends approximately another nine inches and the spring attached to the strap to extends approximately another nine inches for a total of thirty inches. Further it is necessary to allow another six inches of pool deck from the anchor to the edge of the deck so that the anchor will not be so close to the edge that it will crack the concrete. Thus a total of three feet of clearance around the pool is generally required.
A typical prior art arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,763 to Christensen (hereinafter “the '763 patent”). The '763 patent appears to disclose a pool cover tie-down assembly including a web portion 12a having a first end secured to a peripheral edge of a pool cover and a second end which secured to a first end of a tension spring 14. The second end of the tension spring 14 is in turn secured to an anchor 15 embedded in the pool deck. As shown in the figures of the '763 patent the entire tie-down assembly extends past the outer peripheral edge of the pool cover.